Kaitlyn the Great’s Chamber of Secrets always puts me in good spirits. It could have been because the handsome Keran Illestia, who can make you feel delighted just by looking at him, was there. Suddenly realizing that I had kept my eyes on an unknown letter for too long, I glanced across at where Illestia was sitting to improve my eyesight.
Surprisingly, he was nodding off with his chin propped up. Bolton said he had been staying up all night these days, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Well, he might be dozing off right now because he stayed awake all night.
Perhaps the strangely comfortable atmosphere of this room made his eyelids heavy. Anyway, it was beneficial for Illestia, who had been unable to sleep, so I decided not to wake him up. We still have plenty of time ahead as only a month has passed since we returned to 5th grade.
The red light emanating from the fireplace cast over Illestia’s bright blonde hair and eyelashes. The artfully angled bridge of his nose and the space beneath his hollow brow bones cast dramatic shadows on his sacred features.
A story was circulating at the academy that Illestia’s distant ancestor was an elf. I thought it was convincing. Since I was a child, I used to go to many places with my parents, so I’ve seen a lot of different appearances, but I swear on Salamander’s rainbow scales that I couldn’t find such a great face like his.
Just as the queen of the Love Month banquet has always been Blossom, the king of the banquet has always been Keran Illestia. To be honest, even the title ‘King’ was not worthy of him. He was almost God when it comes to appearance.
While I was admiring Illestia’s perfect beauty, putting the <Patch Notes> aside, his eyes suddenly opened. I felt a slight incongruity in his strangely shiny amber eyes, but I didn’t take it seriously as I quickly picked up a pen and drew a curly line on the paper to prove that I was focused on my task.
But then, Illestia whispered something with a very strange expression on his face.
“Ari.”
The sound that spilled from between his lips was deep as if it had been scraped out from the inside of his heart. I got goosebumps. It was because it contained terrible pain and deep longing. Also, we hadn’t yet called each other by name, let alone nicknames.
“‘Ari’?”
When I asked in a whisper, Illestia stretched out his arms without hesitation. Because the distance between us wasn’t far, his trembling fingers poked and fell on my cheek.
Soon after, he began to lean over with his knees on the table. I couldn’t move until Illestia’s hands finally wrapped around my head, as though I was bound by his gaze and voice and the warmth I felt there.
The silence, taut with tension, tightened my stomach. Illestia’s fine blonde hair tickled my forehead. Our noses touched each other. His warm breath brushed my philtrum, and I vaguely felt something dripping down his cheekbones. It was tears.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“It’s my fault, Ari. I am…”
Seeing Illestia’s crown prince sobbing like a child, no matter how brazen I am, there was no way to hide my bewilderment. After raising my hand to wipe away his tears, I felt the need to use a handkerchief, but I couldn’t because he held my wrist and kissed it endlessly.
I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. I pondered whether Illestia had ever committed crimes against me during the five repetitions of nine months, but it couldn’t have been because we hadn’t even made eye contact unless we had Blossom in the middle.
Is there any chance he mistook me for Blossom or someone else? Rosemary Blossom could not be shortened to ‘Ari’. Besides myself, as far as I know, no one in my grade uses the nickname ‘Ari’.
Or maybe there is something I don’t remember?
Could it be that I was not the sixth Ariel Dalton after all?
(T/N: Goosebumps. I never thought of this possibility…)
I was clumsily stroking the back of Illestia, who was hurriedly hanging on to me when I suddenly caught sight of the chandelier illuminating the high curved ceiling. From the moment I stepped into this room, I felt that the cutting of the crystal decoration suited my taste too much.
Come to think of it, what was embroidered on the table runner was the traditional pattern of the Milua minority. The log bench that seemed to be made from wood smelled like pine, which was my favorite scent.
Some things pierced straight into my consciousness without going through other sensory organs. I have been right here with Keran Illestia at some point in the past and the future.
***
Now I’m the one staying up all night. I was haunted by a new realization and couldn’t sleep until the darkness deepened. It was all the more so because Illestia’s demeanor, which had been so desperate, suddenly changed like flipping a palm.
Illestia, who had been shedding tears for a long time, suddenly collapsed as if he had reached a critical point. I was at my wit’s end and didn’t know what to do. Finally, I laid him down on the bench.
By the time I had counted roughly three hundred in my mind, he finally came to his senses. However, pressing the back of his hand to his eyelids, which were still hot, he asked if he had dozed off for a while. His manner of speaking was so serious that he didn’t seem to be lying.
I thought about reiterating that he had fallen asleep, had woken up, cried, and called me ‘Ari’ but I stopped myself. To Illestia, who describes the whole mess as ‘I must have fallen asleep for a while’, it would sound like an extremely new prank.
My past days, which I thought were perfect, now have holes like old cheese. It was clear that Illestia was no different from me. Before we parted, I asked him about ‘Adam Willie’. He said the name flashed into his mind as if someone had whispered it in his ear.
While I’m at it, I tried to talk about things that were present in the past five nine months but are not now. In most cases, he responsed was that it was unfamiliar.
However, in some cases, things did not belong there. For example, Illestia thought Kyle dressed up as a banshee for last year’s Joke Month banquet, but that wasn’t in 4th grade. It happened the third time I was in 5th grade (actually, it’s more likely not the 3rd now, but anyway.) I was sure of it because I was the one who recorded the believable cry on the recording magic tool that he hid in his sleeves.
If there was a hole in my memory, Illestia’s memory was mixed up. The man I met today seemed to be the existence that his messed-up memories drew out. The Keran Illestia of the past, who would have been with ‘Ari’ in Kaitlyn the Great’s Chamber of Secrets, had a heavy backload full of repentance and guilt enough for him to huddle and cry.
Whoever it was, there was no doubt that it was Illestia, who is unknown to me now. The Illestia I knew often made well-drawn expressions not only to me and the other students, but also to Blossom. But at that moment such a delicate masterpiece wouldn’t be possible even if you made it with a brush out of a unicorn’s mane.
Different emotions were felt all at once in his eyebrows, corners of the eyes, eyes glazed with honey, and in his contorted mouth. Joy, pain, anger, relief, and regret.
It felt like my head was about to break. I couldn’t figure out where to start or how to correct it. I don’t even know who I am in the first place, so how would I know who Illestia is?
I felt helpless so I left the dormitory with only my outerwear on. The early morning air had a high mana content and it was flowing vigorously, so I did not know if it would return the brain of the gorilla holding cheese in both hands.
It was around the time when I turned around the back of the dormitory building and passed the road that ran along the square that I noticed the corner of the flower bed was covered with a mana-like mist. Suspicious, I went closer and saw a dim shadow of a person. He held another person’s neck in his hands, and his momentum was very turbulent.
Soon, a huge pillar of fire soared through the mist of mana. It was about twice my height. My body moved first before I even thought it was dangerous. I managed to take a few steps back, but it seemed that I had made a mistake.
My eyes had met his. I was caught up by the thick and dark mana that seemed to be full of murderous intent. An eerie aura penetrated me from my heels to the top of my head. It was the moment terror gripped my heart.
“Oh, it’s you?”
It was a carefree voice that did not suit the situation. As I hesitantly moved nearer, Edgar Ramos waved his hand happily. His palms and shirt were dirty with black ash.
Even if people were burned, they do not become ashes. Only then did the surroundings come into my view. Burnt traces of a cylindrical object with an iron core and fragments of extremely complex magic circuits were strewn about the floor where he stood.
The circuits built for the magic dolls’ operation were usually erased at the same time as the dolls’ destruction for security reasons. It seemed that the doll Ramos was dealing with probably didn’t even have time to recognize its imminent end.
Once again, it dawned on me that he was a powerful wizard. As he said in the practice magic tool storage room, if he poured this much force into it, I would have been toasted before he could break the door.
“What did you do?”
I tried my best not to sound intimidated. The reddish-purple eyes under the wheat-colored bangs that almost covered his forehead, wet with sweat, looked even redder due to the excitement from the battle. His pupils dilated, giving off a ferocious beast-like atmosphere.
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